Excerpt from the Internet; Original Long Wind Literary History
When Chinese people hate a person extremely, they often say some vicious things. For example, I can't wait to cut the other party with a thousand knives.
Thousands of knives, as the name suggests, is to use a knife to cut the flesh on a person's body thousands of times. And this actually originated from a cruel punishment in ancient times that cut the living to death with a knife, that is: Ling Chi.
This practice of punishing people appeared very early in history, but the word "Ling Chi" first appeared in the "Liao History: Criminal Law Chronicles".
According to the available information, it can be known that Ling Chi was used as a formal criminal law at the stage of the late Tang Dynasty and the fifth dynasty.
In the dynasties that followed, Ling Chi was one of the death penalties to punish criminals who committed heinous crimes and crimes that could not be forgiven.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the punishment of Ling Chi reached its peak, and when you open the history books of this stage, you can often see people suffering from Ling Chi.
During the Qing Dynasty, celebrities who were killed in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom abounded. Shi Dakai, Chen Yucheng, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Hong Renji and others all suffered Ling Chi and died after the fall of the Heavenly Kingdom.
If Hong Xiuquan hadn't died before the fall of heaven, this kind of nightmare was waiting for him. But he was lucky to escape, but the young lord Hong Tiangui, the successor of the kingdom that day, was rich, but he did not have such good luck.
Hong Tianguifu, formerly known as Hong Tiangui, was born in November 1849 in Lu Village, Hua County, Guangdong. When he was born, his father was still a sect leader in the mountains of Guangxi, and his name was chosen by his uncle Hong Renji after drawing lots with chopsticks.
Two years later, Hong Xiuquan launched the "Jintian Uprising", ascended the throne and became the king of Taiping, and after leading the army to capture Yong'an, he couldn't wait to establish the system and become the king.
The young Hong Tiangui, as Hong Xiuquan's eldest son and second son (Hong Xiuquan said that he had a "heavenly wife" in the heavenly court and gave birth to a son for him), was named the young lord and became the second most noble person in the Taiping army. Hong Xiuquan added a blessing to the name of his son Hong Tiangui and named it "Hong Tianguifu".
The Taiping army was unstoppable in the early days, and after starting from Guangxi, it fought thousands of miles and was invincible all the way, and occupied Jiangning in 1853, sweeping half of the country.
After the Taiping army settled the capital of Tianjing, Hong Tianguifu also lived in his small paradise with his father. After more than ten years, he ate, drank, lazard, and slept in his Heavenly King's Mansion, and never took a step.
As the most noble child in heaven, Hong Tianguifu has all his life carried out step by step according to Hong Xiuquan's whimsy.
When he started reading at the age of 6, he studied with his sister Hong Tianjiao, and the books he read mainly talked about the adventures of his father Hong Xiuquan, the teachings and the praise of heaven. For example, "Thousand Character Edict", "Xing Shi Wen", "Taiping Salvation Edict", "Taiping Salvation Edict", "Promulgation of the Edict", "Ten Salvation Poems" and so on.
All of these are low-level readings, and as for other books, they have the blessing of God and Jesus, so there is no need to study them.
At the age of 9, Hong Tianguifu got married under the arrangement of his father, and he married four wives. Because Hong Xiuquan emphasized the difference between men and women, he was forbidden to see his mother and sisters after he got married, and he was almost isolated from the world.
Hong Xiuquan has a good calculation, of course, he has to do his own country, so when Hong Tianguifu was 12 years old, he began to train his son as a "successor", and often issued edicts in the name of "young master".
However, Hong Tianguifu's heavenly education has made him gain very limited knowledge and extremely lack of common sense in life, but he is very familiar with the set of gods and ghosts in the kingdom of heaven, and often says that he has the special function of an unknown prophet.
In 1856, the Tianjing Incident occurred, the Taiping kings killed each other, and the Kingdom of Heaven began to decline visibly.
Under such circumstances, Hong Xiuquan became more and more unwilling to face reality, and some difficulties were difficult to solve, so he chose to go to sleep and dream, and then analyze the signs of dreams to govern the country.
Because he dreamed that a large number of cities had been recovered, he thought it was a good omen, and sent an edict encouraging the army and the people to be victorious; I dreamed of killing six beasts, and I also passed down an edict saying which way the army would win.
Maybe Hong Xiuquan fell into the magic barrier, and even believed himself when he told too many lies, but such a ridiculous way of dreaming of governing the country was a laughing stock, and the kingdom of heaven gradually fell into the quagmire.
In 1863, the defeat of the Taiping army was decided, and it can be said that there was no way to return to heaven, and even the heavenly capital could not be guarded. The loyal king Li Xiucheng entered Tianjing and persuaded the king Hong Xiuquan to leave, but Hong Xiuquan refused because God and Jesus would bless the kingdom of heaven and it was not a big deal.
Later, Hong Xiuquan fell ill after eating sweet dew (boiled water with wild grass), and after a long illness, he left behind the absurd dream that he was going to heaven to ask his father to send heavenly soldiers and generals to defend Tianjing.
The Heavenly King died, and Hong Tianguifu, who was the young Heavenly King, ascended the throne. It's just a flower that grows longer than a greenhouse, how can it face the storm of reality.
In the face of this stormy country, Hong Tianguifu has no intention and no power to change. After only more than a month on the throne, Tianjing City was broken by the Hunan army, and he fled from Tianjing City in a hurry under the escort of Li Xiucheng and others.
On the way to escape, he was surrounded and intercepted by the Qing army, Li Xiucheng was separated from the young king in a melee, and was soon captured and Ling Chi.
Hong Tianguifu was able to get out in the fight of King Liu Qinghan and others, and the group of people who were panicked like lost dogs fought and left, and finally the Yang family was wiped out in Shicheng.
Hong Tianguifu was also escorted to Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, where he was interrogated by Xu Benyong, Shen Baozhen, and others.
During the interrogation, Hong Tianguifu showed great cowardice and ignorance and groveling, and the Qing army only flickered slightly, and he explained the kingdom of heaven and his own crimes clearly like a bamboo tube pouring beans.
In order not to be killed, Hong Tianguifu began to fabricate that he had special functions and could predict the prophet.
He said that before the city of Nanjing was broken, he dreamed of officers and soldiers entering the city; In Yangjiapai, I calculated that the officers and soldiers would attack at night, and I told them that I didn't believe it, so that the army was finally defeated.
He thought that he would be fine after confessing everything, and he fantasized about his future with hope.
"I have four wives, I don't want a wife now, and I want it again at the age of twenty", this is a fantasy about the future family; "Now when I return home with my brother, I will go back to study and take the Xiucai exam", this is the Xiucai he thought of going to the Qing Dynasty in the future; So as not to be long-haired, "one heart and one virtue to assist the Qing Dynasty", this is what he hopes to be a good Shunmin of the Qing Dynasty.
It's just that he doesn't know that he is indeed incompetent, but his identity is a great threat to the Qing court, which dooms him to his next fate.
Of course, the Qing Dynasty would not give him the opportunity to be a showman, and after he confessed to the crime, Hong Tianguifu played his last role: to set an example.
On November 18, 1867, Hong Tianguifu, who was 16 years old, was cut in public by the Qing Dynasty and was cut 1,516 times before he died.
38 years later, in the thirty-first year of Guangxu, Ling Chi's punishment was replaced by beheading and disappeared from the legal code.
Hong Tianguifu also became the only emperor and the youngest person in the human record.